Study Desk

He said to his brothers, “My silver has been returned! It’s here in my bag.” Their hearts sank. Trembling, they turned to one another and said, “What is this that God has done to us?”

As they began emptying their sacks, there in each man’s sack was his bag of silver! When they and their father saw their bags of silver, they were afraid.

When they had used up the grain they had brought back from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little food.”

They answered, “The man kept asking about us and our family: ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ And we answered him accordingly. How could we know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother here’?”

The men took this gift, double the amount of silver, and Benjamin. They immediately went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to his steward, “Take the men to my house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for they will eat with me at noon.”

But the men were afraid because they were taken to Joseph’s house. They said, “We have been brought here because of the silver that was returned in our bags the first time. They intend to overpower us, seize us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys.”

So they approached Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the doorway of the house.

When Joseph came home, they brought him the gift they had carried into the house, and they bowed to the ground before him.

He asked if they were well, and he said, “How is your elderly father that you told me about? Is he still alive?”

They answered, “Your servant our father is well. He is still alive.” And they knelt low and paid homage to him.

They served him by himself, his brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who were eating with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, since that is detestable to them.

Portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, and Benjamin’s portion was five times larger than any of theirs. They drank and became drunk with Joseph.

Joseph commanded his steward, “Fill the men’s bags with as much food as they can carry, and put each one’s silver at the top of his bag.

They had not gone very far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Get up. Pursue the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

Then they tore their clothes, and each one loaded his donkey and returned to the city.

When Judah and his brothers reached Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell to the ground before him.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please, come near me,” and they came near. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt.

So Joseph sent his brothers on their way, and as they were leaving, he said to them, “Don’t argue on the way.”

So they went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.